Assembly processes (or lines) are implemented to produce a finished good. The finished goods are a combination of various parts that are attached together through various techniques. A finished good may be any sort of object or product, for example, those sold in commerce. An automobile or vehicle, or a part of an automobile or vehicle, may be a finished good produced via an assembly process.
The parts may connect to each through various workpieces. A workpiece is an assembly part, e.g., a housing, that facilitates in the attachment of different configurable goods and products employed in a finished good. The workpieces are attached to each other to produce a finished good.
In the assembly line, different stations are set up to perform different operations in the creation of a finished good. Each station may serve to incrementally aid in the creation of the finished good.
In order to facilitate the attachment of the workpiece in a manner to produce a finished good, the workpieces are placed in fixtures. A fixture is a mounting element that allows the workpiece to be operated on, and affixed to other parts. The fixture might be a clamp, a vice, a fastening technique, and the like.
The current technique involves receiving a workpiece, manually determining a fixture, and finding the specific fixture for the received workpiece. In modern assembly lines, the assembly line may be tasked to produce many different finished goods. For example, the same assembly line may be responsible for assembling multiple vehicles or parts. Further, the same finished good may involve numerous workpieces.
Thus, many permutations and combinations may be employed in the production of a finished good, or the same assembly line may be employed to produce multiple finished goods. As such, many different workpieces may be implemented.
In this way, every time a new workpiece enters a station, a manual process of determining a fixture may occur. This manual process may introduce delays and inefficiencies to the overall assembly line process.